Your Introductory Record

The after-effects of the devastating "Soundtracks For Films That Don't Yet Exist" plague that ravaged much of Europe during the late 1990s are still being felt to this day. The shamelessly-named Cinema are today's willing carriers – this is their way of saying hello, and it's fantastic.

Your Introductory Record is an odds-and-sods collection that manages to gel together effortlessly as a cohesive whole. Running gleefully roughshod over modern noir, Hammer horror, conspiracy thriller and runabout farce, then pairing them up with some fierce beats, this is a deliciously compact seven-track package of silver-screen ambience.

Opener 'Russian Roulette' marries a spooked-up BBC Sound Effects record to a shuffling, brushed rhythm section by way of an informal introduction. Swiftly on it's heels, and with lethal intent, 'The Scimitar' brings to mind the best ninja assassination scene I've never watched in a Kurosawa flick that I've never heard of. Make a hurried escape in the stolen Corvette when the hit turns out to be a set-up, and 'Getting Away With It' is the chase theme you'll hear on the car radio in between frantic police reports.

Of course, just when you think you're safe, you'll take a wrong turn. Ending up in a very, very nasty crash and a stagger to the creepy house on the hill… 'They Nicknamed Me Evil' places you in a shack with weeping walls and a barrel-load of disembodied hands pulling you through blood-soaked floorboards, all set to an insistent Exorcist-like piano riff. It's probably the album's highlight, and it's more creeping evil than overcooked schlock.

So the plague goes on, and still more music sets out in search of its surrogate film family, but for once I want to see the light that can match these sounds. No Hollywood blockbuster this – thankfully – but an arthouse fleapit classic will do fine for now.